Inside The Bills

The Bills not only had a host of new players on hand at rookie minicamp. It was also the first time that Doug Marrone got on the field to work with some of his new assistants. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, linebackers coach Fred Pagac, defensive line coach Pepper Johnson, quarterbacks coach Todd Downing and receivers coach Rob Moore were all new additions to the Buffalo staff.

Marrone felt the communication between the members of the staff was smooth.

“It’s been great. Even though it might be our first time together it’s still a lot of information and a lot of crossover and people who have worked together with each other,” he said. “I’m excited. This atmosphere is quite different than any other atmosphere in what we were trying to get accomplished. I think you’ll see an increase in OTAs of how we are on the field. Then you’ll see an increase when we get to training camp.”

Marrone did work previously with Moore, who was his receivers coach at Syracuse.

The Bills introduced five new assistant coaches who were added to Doug Marrone’s staff on Tuesday including veteran linebackers coach Fred Pagac. Exposed to a lot of defensive systems in his 37-year coaching career, Pagac doesn’t foresee it being a long and drawn out effort to school up on the players on defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’s defensive system.

“Obviously we want to keep it where our players can learn it,” said Pagac. “I think that’s a key in any coaching situation whether you’re in it for a while or not. I think coach Schwartz will do a great job of setting up the defense. I can see the communication as we’re going through right now being similar to what they were last year so there should not be a lot of new teaching. The schemes are a little different to what they played a year ago. Really it’s not a bad situation to be in. I think the players will pick it up very easily.”